New Halifax account won't let me make payment

Svenena

I recently opened a Halifax Reward current account, mostly because I wanted the extra 0.2% on their ISA (I'm going to transfer an old one over), but the £5 a month is an added bonus.

I opened it online without paying into it, so when I went into the branch to show my ID they told me I'd only get sent the card and paperwork out after I'd funded it.

So I made a payment today from my Vantage account for just over £1000 to activate the account. I then wanted to move the £1000 back into my Vantage account, so I don't lose any interest on that money.

But when I try to make a payment, either back to the Lloyds account or to another of my accounts, I get a message saying "Unable to use mandate. Unable to make payment". The money is showing as available and cleared (went in by FP), so is definitely available in the account, so I'm not sure what the problem is.

Maybe because the money hasn't been in the account long? Although that's never been a problem with any of my other 3 current accounts. Or because I haven't received the card yet? Again, can't see why this would be a problem.

Has anyone else experienced similar with Halifax? I know plenty of people on here simply fund it with the required £1000 a month and then move it out again, so I can't see why it won't let me do this. Getting concerned that I can't access my money!

glider3560

The first transaction has to have something special done to it on all new Halifax accounts (I'm not sure of the finer details). If you paid in at a branch, they would do it there. Expect the deposit to disappear from the Halifax account in the next 48 hours. It will then reappear within another 48 hours backdated to the date you originally paid it in.

My advice would be to just use £100 as the opening deposit and remember to leave this in overnight to trigger a card.

jen245

The money has to be left in the account overnight, although as outlined above, you might find it disappears for 48 hours, but it will show up again, and from then you will be able to transfer the money out. It happened to me when I opened mine. It sounds odd, but is quite normal for Halifax when opening new current accounts!

Svenena

Okay, thanks. That's aggravating (probably hidden in the T & Cs somewhere?), but not the end of the world. I'll keep an eye out for it disappearing and reappearing before moving it back. I think I've read something on here before about it actually, but didn't pay much attention as I wasn't planning on getting the account at the time. I'd have done a smaller transfer if I'd known, but I thought I might as well fulfil the reward requirements at the same time.

Will I get the bonus, even though I haven't had the account for a full month? It's paid around the beginning of the month, right? If so, that will make up for a few days lost interest on the grand.

I notice the online banking is very similar to Lloyds (I understand it recently changed). Do they do the whole phoning you when you set up a new recipient thing?

jen245

As youve paid in your £1000, you will get your first reward payment around the 2nd April (backdated to the 1st). I havent set up any new payees recently so Im not sure about the phoning you thing, although when I do make payments to existing payees, it asks for the password that you use to log into internet banking

glider3560

Svenena wrote: »

probably hidden in the T & Cs somewhere?

No, it isn't. I think everyone who opens an account online is hit with this problem.

Svenena wrote: »

Will I get the bonus, even though I haven't had the account for a full month? It's paid around the beginning of the month, right? If so, that will make up for a few days lost interest on the grand.

Yes. It is paid on the second working day (usually) and backdated to the 1st of the month.

rb10

Svenena wrote: »

I notice the online banking is very similar to Lloyds (I understand it recently changed). Do they do the whole phoning you when you set up a new recipient thing?

No, they'll just phone you if they think something dodgy is going on (e.g. transactions out of character, logging in from a different PC from normal, etc).

veloonz

I would assume that modifying the letter specifying the day after the deposit would be in order. I would also contact your bank again & explain that it's benefits they are witholding, also the IR who it appears can reclaim the monies from the bank.

Svenena

I tried to make the payment again this morning, and this time it not only failed but also blocked my access to online banking and told me I would have to wait up to 24 hours for a phone call. I had to go into the branch anyway (to take in my ISA tranfer form), so whilst there I asked if it was possible to unblock the online banking there rather than waiting for the call. The customer service agent told me yes, asked for and checked my ID, and phoned the relevant department for me.

Despite having been told by the branch staff member that my ID had been checked by her, the guy on the phone insisted I still had to go through security, based on info from my credit report (TBH I found this slightly annoying when I was standing there with photographic ID), but eventually unlocked it for me.

The guy on the phone then asked if I wanted him to make the payment I'd attempted earlier, so I said yes. He then told me it wouldn't leave my account until tomorrow. When I asked why, it was because there wasn't an option to do it by faster payment, but he said if I tried myself later there might be. Glad I asked, as I wouldn't have been happy if I'd had to wait another 3 days to get the money back into my Vantage account!

Anyway, I just logged onto the now unlocked online banking and made the payment, and it's gone by faster payment - hurrah! So I've only lost a day's interest on the money in the end, and should be getting my new debit card, £5 and high interest on my ISA in the near future

Cmdr_Bond

Very interesting - for all intents and purposes, Halifax = Lloyds.

I had a similar problem, tried to make a payment from my brand new Lloyds Classic account to my Santander account.

The web site told me to look out for an exclamation mark at the top of the page to approve the payment.

This never appeared, so I telephoned, got passed through to Telephone Banking who also tried to make the payment. It was again held for verification. i was told I should hear withing 2 hours. After 3 hours I tried to log back in only to be blocked. I phoned their fraud line (telephone banking had given me the number) - went through all the checks.

They were showing the transaction twice now, one internet, one phone. He reinstated my ebanking and canceled the phone one, told me to wait 5 minutes and log back in. Logged back in and it went through.

a&akay

I had the same issue but I could transfer to another long-held current account immediately instead and make a payment through that. My £1000 payment in via Vantage and FP showed immediately as cash. I transferred it out at once by the above. I have now been told I was overdrawn by £1000. Another long drawn out complaint to follow:mad: